Following the release of the minutes from March’s FOMC meeting, which showed little interest in additional easing, both gold and silver dropped sharply. “It can be argued that Tuesday afternoon’s FOMC minutes were not much different than recent statements from Fed Chairman Bernanke,” notes a Kitco report. “However, the market place took the FOMC statement as taking one more step back from any additional quantitative easing, which had been so bullish for raw commodity markets and so bearish for the U.S. dollar index.”